Great Barrier Reef --- Diving
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2004
1
67
89
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Cairns,
Australia
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
We got carted around to the wrong hostel -- but we hit it off with a tour operator who was located right at the check in desk. So while we waited for the other hostel to come get us, we heard all of the Diving Options from Andre.
After getting checked into the hostel and having a general look around, (swimming pool, 2 big kitchens, A/C, pool tables, TV room that was mostly outside, BBQ area...etc, we were pretty happy! Decided to take the more expensive, but really highly recommended Pro-Dive option
Beer Anyone?
. Lisa took a 5 day PADI Open Water Course (2 days in the Pool and Classroom, 3 days at sea) and I went on the Advanced course (those 3 days at sea). So I had 2 days in Cairns to entertain myself. A bit strange actually when you have basically spent 4 months with each other 24/7! The first day I ran errands and got organized and managed to run in Christian Holmes, a guy I used to work with in London, and his fiance Helena! It was surreal -- I was sitting by the pool reading up on my dive course textbook and I saw him walk up to the pool. I thought 'wow, that looks like CH, but no way....' next thing I knew he was heading over. So dinner was planned and we had to run off for part of our class.
For the class, we were to see a presentation called 'Reef Teach' where a crazy Irish bloke gives a presentation about the reef with slides and movies and bits to pass around. It was actually really good and informative -- and entertaining! It was included with our courses, and I would recommend it. http://www.reefteach.com.au/
The four of us had dinner, where I managed to eat Kangaroo, Crocodile, and Emu...as you do. And find the bottom of several bottles of beer and wine
Dive Party
. Was loads of fun!Monday morning we headed out to sea. The mini-bus came and picked us up at 0615. Early. Not too interested in diving that time of morning to be honest.
But was actually really impressive. The folks who work there are very professional but still funny and entertaining. It was quite the well oiled machine! As soon as we got out to the first reef (Thetford) we hopped in and went for a dive. For me it was a bit all bubbles and fins and trying not to make too much of a fool of myself! My buddy Scot was cool -- as was nearly all of the 32 divers and 5 crew.
By the end of the trip, we had night dives, deep dives (L got a bit narced at 26m), navigation dives, naturalist dives, photography dives (see the pictures that I took?!) ... and saw 3 different reefs, sharks, turtle, zillions of different corals, barracuda, jellyfish, parrot fish, trigger fish (one of our group, Stefan, actually got nipped! she was protecting the nest...and can be quite aggressive), caves, swim throughs, more fish than you can shake a stick at and was just perfect. We did 11 dives in 3 days. Which is a lot of diving! No chance to get bored there
Diving buddies Neil, Julia, Steve, and Cathy
!Lisa finished her Open Water and went on to get her Adventure diver and I managed to get the Advanced one done. Was simply a fantastic time. I would really suggest that anyone thinking about diving here use Pro-Dive. They were super. http://www.prodive.com.au/
When we arrived back, everyone met up for a wild night of boozing (not much on the boat...those early morning dives don't need a hangover!). Got back to the hostel about 4am or so!
-B
Obviously B forgot to mention the Coyote ugly (and they were) dancers on the first bar we went to. Followed by some freestyle topless dancing by some tourists who were trying to win a prize. Sweet justice that the girl who kept her top on was the one who won the prize he he.
More drinking and dancing at a rather ropey dark bar where everyone was on the table us included then a short stagger home zzzzzzz A great end to a fantastic few days !!
L
